Oxnard School District relying on parents to monitor iPad use

The Oxnard School District is asking parents to help keep students safe on the Internet as it launches a major initiative to get an iPad into the hands of every student in the 20-school district.

Last month, the district began hosting mandatory training sessions for parents about iPad use and security.

By the end of the month, 8,000 iPads will be deployed, and students will be allowed to take them home. By this time next year, all 17,000 students in the district will have one.

“We’ve done a really good job being up front with our parents from the beginning. We need to work together on Internet safety,” said Assistant Superintendent Cathy Kawaguchi. “It’s all through parent connection and parent education.”

Security issues surrounding tablet computers have surfaced with the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is starting a similar iPad initiative for all its students. According to the Los Angeles Times, high school students got past the security settings on their iPads a week after they received them and started using them for social media and streaming music. Another 71 iPads went missing during a trial run of the iPad program.

Kawaguchi doesn’t expect iPads to go missing in Oxnard because each tablet has a code linked to a student. She said parents are instructed to call police if iPads are stolen after school hours.

The district has notified Oxnard police about the massive deployment, and police have reached out to Neighborhood Watch groups to keep an eye out for iPad theft.

When it comes to social media sites, Kawaguchi said it’s up to parents to decide whether their child should access them at home. Many parents give their child a smartphone, and Kawaguchi tells parents to set the same parameters.